Ashoka Law For All Initiative

Photo Credit: Sebastiaan ter Burg (CC BY 4.0)

Subhashish has been a steward in the Openness movement with intersectional work in digital/human rights, and diversity and inclusion. For over a decade, He has led strategy and has implemented high-impact programs to further the multistakeholder internet governance, open knowledge, open licensing and Open Educational Resources (OER) across Asia-Pacific in many NGOs including Wikimedia Foundation, Centre for Internet & Society, Mozilla and Internet Society. As a documentary filmmaker, he has investigated India's biometrics and digital identification landscape under the Yoti Digital Identity Fellowship 2019. He has produced films for the protection of indigenous and endangered languages as a National Geographic Explorer, especially through the project OpenSpeaks that he founded. A long-time Wikipedia editor and leader in many open initiatives like Creative Commons and Mozilla, Subhashish has fostered the growth of 40,000 volunteers across 40 economies in Asia-Pacific and has designed Wikipedia Education Program and 200+ outreach programs for growth of Indian-language Wikipedias. Subhashish speaks Odia, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali and English with varied degrees of fluency.

Meghana leads the Impact Evaluation for Law for All Initiative at Ashoka in South Asia. In her role, she strives to empower changemakers’ communities to shape practices and influence policies in the law and justice landscape through evidence-based impact assessments.

Prior to joining Ashoka, she worked as an International Consultant for the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disability, hosted by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) New York Headquarters.  She has a diverse research background in science, policy studies, and international development.

Meghana finds her ardent passion in human rights law, equal access to justice and legal rights, social and international development, and has worked on related projects in her recent professional experience.

She holds an MS degree from Binghamton University with a specialization in Public Health and Biological Sciences. She has also completed a certification programme in UN, Global Challenges, and policy reforms from the Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland.

Acheng leads the Venture and Fellowship for the Law For All Initiative at Ashoka. Her journey as a changemaker started from a young age by serving her community in Manipur. She was instrumental in running campaigns for women's rights as part of a tribal women's group in Ukhurl district of Manipur. Prior to joining Ashoka, Acheng worked in an organization that empowers the urban poor by enabling access to basic services, healthcare, education, and livelihoods. Inspired by her personal journey, Acheng is passionate about empowering young people to realize their full potential. She holds a Master's in Social Work and has done a PGP in Development Management from the Indian School of Development Management (ISDM 2018 batch).